There's a new Mini? Groovy, Baby!

In 1957, auto engineer Alec Issigonis sketched a rough design on a restaurant tablecloth of a car destined to become a British motoring icon. That doodle was the prototype for the Mini, the 3m-long, 1.2m-wide engineering feat that became  along with the Volkswagen Beetle and Citröen's 2CV  one of those small cars that inspire both devotion and ridicule. After its 1959 launch, the Mini went on to sell more than 5 million cars over the next four decades, until it became clear the car could not meet stiffened European safety regulations.